Experimental starship command center

Rasterizer

Hello, everyone!

Here's something I've been pushing around for the past few hours, it's supposed to be an experimental bridge design for a starship which I am planning to run through my engine to test the stochastic global illumination solver on reasonably reflective/glossy surfaces.

The bridge itself spawns from a quick overlook sketch I did, as part of my experiment to move away from common science fiction bridges and command centers. The commander/captain observes from an elevated deck, issuing commands to subordinates. I plan to add the captain's ready room at the back, through the door on the elevated platform. I've tried to go for a clean, curvy futuristic look rather than bulky designs that can be seen in games like Dead Space or Halo.

Here's what I've got thus far. I am trying to avoid the programmer art stigma by expanding my artistic horizons. Hopefully, you can help point me in the right direction.

And here's the current state of things:

I'd really love to see past just the mathematical expressions and delve deeper into the artistic side of things, if that's possible for us lowly software engineers. I'd love any comments you can throw my way. Thank you very much!

Rasterizer

Finally took an hour of spare time to deliver some drastic changes, scrapped the original ceiling and the walls in favor of a more curvy-blocky oval shape near the windows and have begun adding in geometric details (conduits, flow bulkheads, a status display).

Rasterizer

Since the geometry depth doesn't fluctuate intensely between the smoother parts, after some reworking I decided to do a trivial intense lighting render to give a clearer idea of the shapes involved. Here it is, 1920x1080 this time.

Rasterizer

I am currently experimenting with some of the more procedural approaches to constructing the basis for the ventilation system, although I think I'll have to find something that can follow a spline due to the curved geometry. If there's none, I'll just write it up with MaxScript.

Should give some geometric density and further the quest for detail.

Rasterizer

Got into experimenting with the door, blocking in the main shape, no details as of yet. This one has three moving parts, where the lateral ones latch into the the middle one when the doors are closed, and move out in an unlock sequence to remove the middle door column. Seemed like a prudent door for the control bridge of an entire vessel.

Breaking up the symmetry a bit.

SolCommand

It's looking really good mate ! Keep it up

Rasterizer

SolCommand wrote: »

It's looking really good mate ! Keep it up

Thank you very much for the support!

Spent some time just reinforcing the idea of the entrance to the command center, which should logically be somewhat armored. First I wanted to show a bit of the raw mechanism which controls the lateral parts which block the middle column from moving.

After that, it seemed prudent to expand on the security measures of the bridge. As the lateral sides cut into the middle column and the mechanism is exposed, a simple strong physical rods can be erected from the floor and locked into place to prevent the lateral sides from moving.

Since they can't move and the sheer mass of the main column is forcing it down, it's perfect for quarantine efforts or cases of intruders.

Rasterizer

Didn't have much time to play around today, after attending to business, I did a bit of touching up and fixing overall topology and shape where applicable. And here's a bit of a test which is helping me to get a better idea of the shear scope of the bridge.

The female model is, of course, not mine. Courtesy of 3ds max sample files. Dropped the rig, just used the geometry.